"A family residing in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received notice throughout the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
